Biology(Page 12)

A guide to life, on Earth and beyond, including the top news about plants, animals, and physiology.

Latest in Biology

Computer illustration of ISS with docket spacecraft
Technology

The ISS’s latest delivery includes space plants and atmospheric lightning monitors

By Andrew Paul

A badger in a forest on a rainy day.
Environment

Air quality monitoring stations could help track and preserve threatened species

By Laura Baisas

Lionfish are now threatening ecosystems and livelihoods in Brazil
Environment

Lionfish are now threatening ecosystems and livelihoods in Brazil

By Osmar J. Luiz/The Conversation

A moth with wings extended outward lands on a flower.
Environment

This massively underrated pollinator needs your help

By Laura Baisas

These species were discovered in museum collections. They might already be extinct.
Science

These species were discovered in museum collections. They might already be extinct.

By Katarina Zimmer / Undark

The adult gomphothere skull (foreground, tusk capped in white plaster) was separated from the main body (background, covered in plaster) prior to its preservation.
Environment

Elephants once roamed Florida—and scientists just stumbled on a graveyard full of them

By Laura Baisas

A mother and baby golden snub nosed monkey. These primates live in mountainous regions of southwestern China. Longer periods of maternal care may have helped them form more complex societies.
Environment

Chilly climates may have forged stronger social bonds in some primates

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s reconstruction of an Australian pterosaur flying with a large wingspan.
Science

Dinosaur Cove reveals a petite pterosaur species

By Laura Baisas

Reassembled partial skeleton Ambulator keanei with silhouette demonstrating advanced adaptations for quadrupedal, graviportal walking.
Environment

This 500-pound Australian marsupial had feet made for walkin’

By Laura Baisas

HIV, seen in red budding particles, is among the deadliest viruses.
Health

The deadliest viruses in human history, from COVID to smallpox

By Eva Botkin-Kowacki

A close up of a skull and teeth.
Science

Plague DNA was just found in 4,000-year-old teeth

By Laura Baisas

A walker in sneakers, with the bottom of the shoe visible.
Health

Evolution of human foot arches put the necessary pep in our upright steps

By Laura Baisas

A sloth hangs in a tree in Costa Rica. The mammals have the slowest digestive system of any animal on Earth. It can take sloths two weeks to digest an entire meal, and they sleep about 20 hours a day to conserve energy.
Environment

Sloth schedules are surprisingly flexible

By Laura Baisas

The weevil Anchylorhynchus trapezicollis is the main pollinator of South American palm Syagrus coronata. Here, the weevil is seen on a female flower, touching the receptive parts and leaving pollen grains in the process.
Environment

Move over, bees: The lowly weevil is a power pollinator

By Laura Baisas

The Tungurahua volcano eruption.
Science

Mixing volcanic ash with meteorites may have jump-started life on Earth

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Danish painters used beer to create masterpieces, but not the way you think
Science

Danish painters used beer to create masterpieces, but not the way you think

By Rahul Rao

A person wearing running shorts holding their thigh on a beach, potentially wondering what happens when you pull a muscle, because they probably just did.
Science

Here’s what really happens when you pull a muscle

By Nicole Wetsman

A spiny mouse standing on a rock. Spiny mice can regenerate skin, muscle, nerves, spinal cord, and possibly cardiac tissue.
Environment

African spiny mouse joins a small but mighty group of bony plated mammals

By Laura Baisas

A group of yellow and fuzzy baby chicks.
Environment

How a sniff test could make sexing chicks more humane

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s illustration of the giant gorgonopsian Inostrancevia with its dicynodont prey, scaring off the much smaller African species Cyonosaurus.
Science

This tiger-sized, saber-toothed, rhino-skinned predator thrived before the ‘Great Dying’

By Laura Baisas

A newly hatched California condor.
Environment

Thriving baby California condor is a ray of hope for the unique species

By Laura Baisas

An older couple shares a kiss against a backdrop of fall trees.
Science

Ancient Mesopotamian texts show when and why humans first kissed

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Siler collingwoodi is a colorful, ant-mimicking spider found in China and Japan.
Environment

This spider pretends to be an ant, but not well enough to avoid being eaten

By Laura Baisas

A blue butterfly on a pink flowering plant.
Environment

A ‘butterfly tree of life’ reveals the origins of these beautiful insects

By Laura Baisas

Extinct ‘thunder beasts’ went from mini to massive in the blink of an evolutionary eye
Environment

Extinct ‘thunder beasts’ went from mini to massive in the blink of an evolutionary eye

By Laura Baisas

A clownfish swimming in an anemone.
Environment

Baby anemonefish can rapidly change their genes to survive in the sea

By Laura Baisas

A mosquito hanging upside down on a leaf.
Environment

Can scented soap make you less of a mosquito buffet?

By Laura Baisas

A diverse crowd of people.
Science

What is a pangenome? Scientists just released their first draft.

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Soft brie cheeses on a plate with their rind on top.
Science

A hunk of cheese is a perfect playground for fungal antibiotics

By Laura Baisas

A new butterfly species with orange wings and black spots next to the eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings films.
Environment

Lord of the Rings villain Sauron inspires the name of new butterfly genus

By Laura Baisas

A bat sea star on a dark background.
Environment

The blueprints for early organs may be hiding in sea stars

By Laura Baisas

The cast of a Neanderthal skull on display at the Chemnitz State Museum of Archaeology in Germany on January 24, 2023.
Science

How Neanderthal genetic material could influence nose shapes to this day

By Laura Baisas

A honeybee pollenating a yellow flower.
Environment

What busy bees’ brains can teach us about human evolution

By Laura Baisas

Amazonian dark earth (ADE) is a nutrient rich dark soil that could play a role in reforestation.
Environment

How 2,000-year-old soil could be a lifeline for the Amazon rainforest

By Laura Baisas

Robot plants could be used to grow infrastructure in space from scratch
Science

Robot plants could be used to grow infrastructure in space from scratch

By Dario Floreano and Nicola Nosengo/MIT Press Reader

Roses blooming in a garden.
Science

Chemists finally unlock the secret to a rose’s iconic aroma

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Woolly mammoth tusks in dawn light on Wrangel Island, northeast Siberia, where the female mammoth tusk used in the testosterone study had been found several years earlier.
Environment

Male woolly mammoths had hormone-fueled bouts of aggression

By Laura Baisas

Man prepping person for fMRI scan.
Technology

This AI-powered brain scanner can paraphrase your thoughts

By Andrew Paul

An illustration of the organisms that lived in the Castle Bank community.
Environment

Fossil trove in Wales is a 462-million-year-old world of wee sea creatures

By Laura Baisas

Red cherry shaped as butt on orange and purple ombre background
Science

A scientific exploration of big juicy butts

By Rachel Feltman

The oldest chili pepper specimen may be from present-day Colorado
Science

The oldest chili pepper specimen may be from present-day Colorado

By Sara Kiley Watson

How deadly amphibians survive their own poisons
Environment

How deadly amphibians survive their own poisons

By Geoffrey Giller/Knowable Magazine

A bartender pours a light beer into a large glass.
Health

Inventing lager was a huge mistake

By Laura Baisas

An adult male and adult female California sea lion sit on a beach surrounded by pups.
Environment

Male California sea lions have gotten bigger and better at fighting

By Laura Baisas

Balto's taxidermy on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Environment

How different is Balto, the heroic sled dog, from today’s Siberian huskies?

By Laura Baisas

Evolution of human brain size shown with brass sculptures at a kids science museum in China
Environment

We probably have big brains because we got lucky

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

A mushroom called coprophilous grows in woods.
Environment

What prehistoric poop reveals about extinct giant animals

By Laura Baisas

Two mudskippers fighting in the mud, with eyes and pectoral fins exposed.
Environment

Mudskippers blink—and that’s a huge evolutionary clue

By Laura Baisas

A male chimpanzee named Frodo frowns.
Environment

Nice chimps finish last—so why aren’t all of them mean?

By Laura Baisas

A carnivorous Sarracenia plant growing in the wild.
Environment

Carnivorous pitcher plants may use tempting aromas to lure prey to their death

By Laura Baisas

Giving drones inflatable suits could help them survive crash landings
Technology

Giving drones inflatable suits could help them survive crash landings

By Sara Kiley Watson

A forest elephant with a raised trunk surrounded by greenery. Forest elephants are much smaller in size compared to savanna elephants, and their ears are an oval shape.
Environment

Elephants and humans share surprising similarities. A new docuseries dives deep into that relationship.

By Laura Baisas

Gray hair growing on a male's head.
Health

What’s at the root of gray hairs?

By Laura Baisas

African penguins standing on a sandy beach.
Environment

How African penguins continue to survive changes in climate

By Laura Baisas

Cannabis plant under purple weed grow light
Science

On 420, learn more about weed with these carefully cultivated science stories

By Jamie Dickman

Brown garden snail eating a strawberry on a white table
Environment

Experience the uncomfortable weirdness of a snail eating fruit

By Laura Baisas

A polar bear standing on ice.
Environment

Why the biggest animals move so slowly

By Laura Baisas

An orb weaver spider spins a web in a forest.
Environment

Spider glue might evolve faster than the spiders themselves

By Laura Baisas

Examples of floating plastics collected in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre during The Ocean Cleanup’s 2018 expedition.
Environment

Some coastal critters are thriving in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

By Laura Baisas

Person in a dark room watering a houseplant with a beam of light. Illustrated.
Environment

How to grow plants in the dark

By Ellen Airhart

The mysterious ‘Tully monster’ didn’t have a spine after all
Science

The mysterious ‘Tully monster’ didn’t have a spine after all

By Jamie Dickman

People walk in a field with blooming poppy flowers near the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve following an unusually wet winter on April 14, 2023 near Lancaster, California. Historic levels of rainfall fell in some parts of California, amid a barrage of atmospheric river winter storms, which has led to a 'super bloom' of wildflowers in certain parts of the state this spring.
Environment

California’s eye-popping super bloom is one for the books

By Laura Baisas

A xenobot, or a living robot, in culture, under a microscope.
Technology

Meet xenobots, tiny machines made out of living parts

By Charlotte Hu

What happens when a tree dies?
Science

What happens when a tree dies?

By Camille Stevens-Rumann/The Conversation